NearlyFreeSpeech.net stands out among shared-hosting companies for many reasons, but its cost structure is one of the biggest. NFSN doesn’t charge a flat fee for an “unlimited” number of web sites, or a smaller fee for one or two sites. Instead, NFSN charges for what you use. Before I committed to switching my sites from Hostgator to NearlyFreeSpeech.net, I needed to make sure I wouldn’t be dinged for a Slashdot/Reddit/Hacker News-style traffic spike.

As I build my own server — and this would be the same for a cloud VPS or a local computer, there is a lot to set up and configure. Shared hosts like NearlyFreeSpeech.net (which I will be using more soon) and Hostgator (which I’ve used for years and will probably be using less) take care of many things in a safe and secure way. Setting up your own server is very much like reinventing the wheel.